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He was in his room, sitting on the edge of his bed with a cigarette between his lips, staring across the room at the mirror against the wall. In front of the mirror, a chair, with his intermediate jacket hanging on the back of it. It seemed like ages ago they had gone on that mission, and maybe it was. He often lost track of time on the island, weeks passing in what might have felt like days or sometimes vice versa.

Around his room, were the light touches of her. The colored bedding, a bag of her toiletries, her her clothes, magazines she had left for him.... Every where he looked something that screamed Fini right in his face.

He reached up and ran a hand through his hair, then rubbed at his face, before lifting his cigarette for another long drag.

She was on his mind a lot the last few days, and not in the hopelessly in love, cute and romantic kind of way. It just seemed like so much of the time, after all of the things that had happened between them, after the New Years debacle and their time in wonderland and after so many trials and hardships they had to endure together......

He ashed his cigarette in an empty whiskey bottle near the side of the bed, his mind running at a mile a minute, continuing to try and process how he really felt, what he truly wanted out of this, and from her anymore.

They were going to need to talk. He knew that. He just couldn't figure out what he was going to say.

The light knock on his door startled him out of his thoughts, and he blinked a few times before standing. "Be right there." He called from around his cigarette, striding towards his desk to grab for his eye patch, slipping it in place before turning towards the door. He had no idea who it could be. A few people came to mind, Ripley, Jack, Fini....but she was the most likely of the three to just walk right in without announcement.

And he didn't want to think it was her because he was fairly certain he did not want to see her right now. He still hadn't a clue what to say.

He reached the door and pulled it open.

And there she was.

"Sunshine." He smiled, an auto-reaction for just about anyone and everyone, as no happiness shone in his eyes whatsoever, though his tone was warm.

Inside, however, he felt....barely anything. Numb. There was no happiness but there also wasn't any dread or anxiety. He just simply...was.

He stepped back, leaving the door open so she could come inside, going back to his spot sitting on the side of the bed, waiting for her to sit beside him as he was sure she would do, to kiss him as he had come to expect.....

He gave himself a mental head shake.

"Darling, I think we need to talk." He finished off his cigarette, and butted it out on the bottle.

He was surprised, but as usual, it just didn't show. She hadn't come into his room when she'd first arrived, instead choosing to knock, and that should have been his first hint that something was up. She didn't come in right away, her hesitation at the door noted with only the mildest concern flitting at the back of his mind.

She didn't sit with him, didn't curl up next to him on the bed, didn't kiss him...

And now he knew that it wasn't just him. She felt it too. She knew.

He wasn't sure if that was going to make this any easier.

"s**t." He smiled at her, at where she stood in the room. "What did I do this time?" He asked, pretending that he didn't know, or at least suspect, that this was more serious then just a gentle tongue lashing he was about to receive.

"Not even a kiss hello. Must be serious then." He reached for the pack of cigarettes on his bed. He had just finished one, but another was taken out anyways, placed between lips, lit.

He took a long drag and sighed out the smoke, waiting for her response.

Finn snorted softly when she moved towards him, leaning in, smiling, to kiss his cheek. It was disingenuous, those words, that smile, that kiss, all of it. She was playing a game, much like they both had done when they had first met, when they had been hardly more then strangers to one another.

Interesting.....

The cigarette was plucked away from him, and he let it go, let her have it without a fuss. "I am not feeling magnificent." He calmly retorted, watching her as she smoked what had been his only seconds before. Reaching beside him, he grabbed for his pack of cigarettes once more, with slow and deliberate motions, removing another cigarette and his lighter, placing it between his lips again. Lighting it, again.

Inhale and exhale. Watch and listen. His expression never changed, his gaze never softening even for a second, even at her question.

"How do I feel." He repeated her words, mulling then over in a mind that continued to run a marathon while he himself felt much too slow. He should have been able, at this point in their relationship, not even hesitate to tell her how much he liked her, how much he cared for and worried for her when the s**t hit the fan. What did it say about him that he still could not even admit that much?

"I feel that you may be trying to lead me into some kindof of trap." He began with a smirk, before continuing, "But I guess, what I really feel is....not much." He concluded.

And she could take that however she wanted.

He was already mentally chastising himself for his choice of words. But she knew him, probably better then anybody, and if he knew her as much as he thought he did, he didn't think she would misunderstand or feel hurt or angry. Indeed, she didn't seem to be any of these things as she put the half finished cigarette away and moved to sit beside him. His cigarette was placed between his lips again, and without thought his arm that was nearest to her was soon wrapped around her, pulling her close in to his side, before his hand ran up and down her arm, in what could have likely been described as a soothing motion.

The shove didn't do much to get him to back off, and he reached up with his free hand to take his cigarette away from his lips again, breathing out smoke into the air before turning and placing a soft kiss against her temple. a motion that was more brotherly then anything else.

"Are you saying that I ensnared you, darling?" He asked with amusement clear in his voice, his lips curling up into a smirk. "Because I remember things quite differently." But no, she was probably right. He was the one that manipulated. He was the one that had likely given hope.

And now it felt like it was the time to take that all back. He sighed through his nose, lowered his head so that he was looking at his lap, and then looked back up.

The ball was back in his court indeed. But what to say, and how to say it? That was the question he still struggled with.

"Not necessary." He said, shifting a little on the bed, bringing a knee up, turning so that he was facing her, looking her in the face, that beautiful face, and into those enchanting blue eyes. One hand came up to cup her cheek, and he for once wasn't smiling, and in a deadly serious voice combined with that cold stare, he spoke.

"It's not me. It's you."

And then he couldn't hold it in anymore, and he smiled, and laughed, and with a brush of his thumb against her cheek, let his hand drop, as he let his gaze fall once more, before he lifted it back up, still smiling.

"Oh man, Sunshine I....did you know, I think you're absolutely perfect? You are. You are, by far, the most beautiful woman I have ever met. You could kick my a** in heart beat, and I know it. You're intelligent, you're funny, and probably most importantly, you put up with me. You put up with all of my s**t and I....how does somebody like you even exist? How can you be just so damn perfect?" That was a good start, he supposed, so he continued on.

"I can't have perfect. I can't do perfect. I can't be perfect. Fini, I can't be happy, or loving, or doting, or any of those things. There might have been a time, once, when I thought that but now...." He shook his head. "You're perfect, and perfect doesn't even exist. How is that possible?" All of these words spilled out of him, and it was clear that he had been thinking about this for some time, but also that he was just saying whatever thought popped into his head, making him ramble.

He reached up to rub at his face, knowing that he wasn't doing this right. Knowing that he really just needed to get to the point.

"You know I care about you. I care about you a lot, more then I thought I was capable of, but that isn't enough. I know I will hurt you. I know that, given enough time, I will drag you through the dirt just because I am pretty sure you would let me, and don't deny that you wouldn't, Fini. You've already shown that you're able to withstand a lot, and have put up with everything I've done so far, but I know I can do worse. I know I will. I will lie, and I will cheat, and I won't stop." He clenched his jaw tight at that admission.

"I want you to decide, right now, that it's over. I can do friends, Fini, but I won't do this anymore. But you need to say it. I need you to say that I'm not yours anymore, because I don't want you to be mine."

And now it had come full circle.

The blank look didn't go unnoticed, but it didn't matter to him, not one iota. She could think what she wanted, she could disagree until she was blue in the face. She could list out a million of her flaws, which he was sure she could manage to do, but he just didn't care. She was perfect, to him, for him, everything he could have possibly wanted in a woman. They fought, and she put him in his place. She didn't take his s**t, didn't back down from him, and instead of leaving him, like any sane woman would have done by now, she just clung harder.

Maybe she thought she could change him. Maybe, over time, in a different world, she could have.

But too many things had happened since then. Too many memories of past love dredged up recently. New Years....that had been an eye opener for him, and it had brought with it a stark realization.

She could scowl at him all she wanted, he wasn't taking back anything that he had just said. He was being open and honest with her, a luxury that he would not provide for anybody else. He was finished, and he pursed his lips, and waited. Waited for what he said to sink in, for her to accept it, and for them to be able to move on. He didn't expect there to be a fight, because there was no need for one. He didn't expect there to be tears, because he thought he knew Fini well enough to know that she wouldn't bother.

The seconds stretched on between them, and he continued to look at her, waiting, patiently, for her to say something.

She finally spoke, and leaned towards him, shoving. He let her, and he fell back, flopping on his bed with a sigh. He didn't try to grab her wrist and drag her with him, but he did roll onto his side and prop his head up in his hand to watch her, and to listen, a small smirk lifting the corner of his mouth.

He let her take his hand as she continued, and squeezed her fingers gently between his as she finished.

"..............But with benefits though, right?" He asked, in as mild and innocent of a tone as he could manage.

She pulled at his cheek, and he flinched back at the motion with a small frown cast her way. His hand slipped free of hers and he reached up to shove at her, hopefully hard enough to knock her straight off of the bed and onto the floor, preferably on her a**. Her answer to his half-tease was expected. He hadn't really thought that she would be game having more casual relations with no attachments, but it wouldn't have been like him not to at least put the offer on the table.

"And what, exactly, would be the point of that?" He asked, lips still quirked in his usual small, and quite knowing, smirk as he leaned towards her, whether she was still on the bed or now on the floor. But he knew the answer, knew the comfort of having somebody lying next to you through the night, especially after all of the nightmares they had faced. He wasn't exactly opposed to the idea of her continuing to spend the evenings in his bed, but he wasn't about to give it to her so easily, either.